A couple years ago I sold my beloved RH1 minidisc on this forum thinking I was done with DAPs, and would buy a modern player when I got back into it. Because I could only fit a few CDs on a disc, and I refused to use sonicstage to transfer music.

Well, I am learning a language now and I want to record audio for later review. That would be from TV, podcasts, news reports, my teachers and tutors, shows on Netflix, etc. The minidisc made this trivially easy. ..with a 3.5mm cord and a tiny mic, I could record from anything, and edit on the minidisc, and set tracks and markers. Is there modern devices that can do this, or am I just going to have to buy a minidisc?

How about the Roland R5? I have never used it, however the description of it and the reviews of it on Amazon are interesting. I see B&H has it on sale now for $149. 
 
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/687099-REG/Roland_R_05_R_05_Portable_24_bit_Digital.html
 
http://www.amazon.com/Roland-R-05-Studio-WAVE-Recorder/dp/B003IJ3WIW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449848930&sr=8-1&keywords=Roland+R-05
 
 
B&H also has many other recorders.
 
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Portable-Digital-Recorders/ci/14934/N/3992462091?origSearch=Digital%20recorders

Looks pretty good. I like that it uses sd cards. Does anyone have any experience with its output amp quality or its utility as a DAP? that wouldn't be the primary use, but the good thing about MD was it was pretty good at both playback and recording.

trains are bad said:

Looks pretty good. I like that it uses sd cards. Does anyone have any experience with its output amp quality or its utility as a DAP? that wouldn't be the primary use, but the good thing about MD was it was pretty good at both playback and recording.

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The issue with using a recorder as a player is that the vast majority of them have no tag browsing and ignore the tags completely. Most don't even sort the files alphabetically, but instead by time created. At one point I was thinking about using a recorder as a player just so I could have something with a card slot that runs on AA or AAA batteries. 

That's what I was afraid of. I hate when technology goes backwards. Do things like the ipod touch have advanced recording capabilities, or any recording at all? Last time I checked, they didn't.

trains are bad said:

That's what I was afraid of. I hate when technology goes backwards. Do things like the ipod touch have advanced recording capabilities, or any recording at all? Last time I checked, they didn't.

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The electronics makers want you to buy two devices, a recorder, and a music player. Some music players have recording ability for voice memos, however sound quality is low. It is probably on par or worse than the recording ability of phones. 

I was just about to buy the R-05, figuring if it has bad tag browsing I won't care that much because I can use different SD cards for music and recording, but the manual says it does not support gapless playback...an unbelievable oversight for such a device.

trains are bad said:

I was just about to buy the R-05, figuring if it has bad tag browsing I won't care that much because I can use different SD cards for music and recording, but the manual says it does not support gapless playback...an unbelievable oversight for such a device.

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Last day for the R-05 sale. The R-05 isn't perfect, especially if you want something as both a recorder and a player, however if your primary interest is recording, and your budget is $150, you probably can't do any better than the R-05.

trains are bad said:

I was just about to buy the R-05, figuring if it has bad tag browsing I won't care that much because I can use different SD cards for music and recording, but the manual says it does not support gapless playback...an unbelievable oversight for such a device.

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Welcome to the modern day world of mp3 players.  You wouldn't believe the amount I've rejected just because they either a)had bad battery life or b)no gapless.